Rockwell Collins chief got $7.9 million in fiscal ‘09 compensation, up 22 percent from 2008

Rockwell Collins CEO gets $7.9M in fiscal 2009 pay

Rockwell Collins Inc., which develops aviation electronics and communications equipment for commercial and government applications, gave Chief Executive Clayton M. Jones total compensation valued at $7.9 million in fiscal 2009, a nearly 22 percent jump from the year before, according to Associated Press calculations of data filed with regulators.

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday, Jones received a salary of $996,154 and a performance-based bonus of $1 million in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30. He also received $247,600 in other compensation, including retirement contributions and an automobile allowance.

The company, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, said in its proxy that salaries were frozen for employees, including executives, in 2009 as part of cost-savings measures.

Jones received stock and option awards the company valued at $5.6 million on the day they were granted.

In fiscal 2008, Jones received compensation valued at $6.5 million.

The Associated Press has its own compensation formula that is designed to isolate the value the company’s board placed on the executive’s total compensation package during the last fiscal year. It includes salary, bonus, performance-related bonuses, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year.

The calculations don’t include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the SEC, which reflect the size of the accounting charge taken for the executive’s compensation in the previous fiscal year.